Beginners card class - a night of crafting creativity

On Thursday night I held a beginners papercrafting class around at my house and I'd just like to say thank you to the lovely ladies who attended. We had a great evening with lots of fun and gossip and I was told that it was just the way to unwind after a stressful week at work. Cards and papers were pre-cut and scored so that folks could focus on stamping and punching and after a few practice stamps everyone dived right in.

This is the set of cards and a gift box that we made on the night although there was room for a little variation on the themes. For example Julie made her valentine card into an engagement card and Jo-anne opted to make a new baby card instead of the olive birthday card - just shows how versatile the stamp sets are. We also found time (OK so we overran but we were having fun!) to stamp inserts and envelopes and personalise the backs of the cards.

I've already posted the valentine's card here and the true friend card here if you want to take a look back at how I did them. 

The gift box is the same as the one here but using a different colour scheme. I used Old Olive cardstock and Old Olive Designer Series Paper. The large polka dot flower was stamped in Really Rust ink and the ribbon is Certainly Celery.

The card made to go with the gift box is also in Old 

Olive and this was stamped with the Leaves a la Carte Stampin' Around Wheel with Versamark ink applied to an uninked cartridge to give a watermark effect at the side. I used Happy Birthday Wishes from the Fun and Fast Notes stamp set and coloured with markers. The corner rounder punch was used on this and on the mat behind it which was Always Artichoke.

I don't just run classes for beginners, there are also classes covering different techniques, boxes and bags, scrapbooking and stamp camps for special occasions. If you'd like to join in a class or host a workshop then please email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com for available dates.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx

Does anybody know what a Moo card is?

Have you heard of Moo cards? I'd never heard of these little things until I joined the Stamping Mad Craft Forum which runs a Moo card swap which I decided to have go at. They're pretty much like ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) but even smaller. They measure just 2.8cm x 7cm (approx 1.1" x 2.8"). This is about the size of a microscope slide, so pretty restrictive in terms of what you can get on them.

I found though that the stamps from A Little Bit of Happiness (Level 1 free hostess set) fit quite well if some of the image is trimmed off the sides. I used the Love and the Thank You stamps from this set, stamped them with Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder onto paper vellum. I then coloured behind the vellum (for more subtle colouring) using markers and stuck to Whisper White cardstock. To hide the glue, I stuck a  couple of narrow strips of Pretty in Pink (for Love) and Old Olive (for Thank You) card onto the edges. I hope that my swapee likes them.

Keep Stampin'

Sara xx

A sunny birthday card on a grey day using a free stamp set

Well, the good news is that I'm feeling a whole lot better today. The bad news is that means that I'll have to go back to work tomorrow. But at least it's nearly the weekend.

It's been a miserable grey day here today and so I decided to make a card in warm sunny colours to try to balance things out. I took the layout from a sketch challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.

I started with Old Olive cardstock as my base and matted it with So Saffron card and paper from the Haiku Designer Paper Series. Two more strips of a different paper from the same collection were matted onto Old Olive. 

Using the 5 petal flower from the Polka Dot Punches set (click here to found out how to get this for free) I stamped twice each with Old Olive ink onto Old Olive card and with Really Rust ink onto So Saffron card. I then used the 5 petal flower punch to punch these out. A More Mustard brad from the Earth Elements set was added to the centre of each flower and leaf set and the whole was stuck on with a dimensional. I used the Happy Birthday stamp from the Circle of Friendship stamp set with Really Rust ink on So Saffron card and the large spiral flower from the Polka Dot Punches stamp set on the same. I punched the spiral flower with the Scallop Circle punch and punched a plain scallop circle in Old Olive. The two scallop circles were rotated and matted. I punched the Happy Birthday with the 1" circle punch. The Happy Birthday was raised on a dimensional.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

An Anniversary Card in a clean and simple design using gold embossing

Thanks very much for the get well wishes you've sent. I still felt awful this morning when I finally came around but I've picked up a bit through the afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to turn this cold around. 

Yesterday was craft tip day so that was straightforward enough, but to make today's blog easier I've gone back again to another card I made earlier. This is an anniversary card that has a very clean and simple design. I generally like the less is more approach for wedding and anniversary cards. I started with Very Vanilla as the base cardstock. Using Versamark ink I stamped just the cakes from the Together Forever stamp in the Fun and Fast Notes stamp set. I covered this with gold embossing powder and applied the heat tool. To make the gold background I swiped my Versamark pad along all four edges of a larger rectangle, covered again with gold embossing powder and heated. (The not so neat bit of the swiping is hidden behind the cakes and you just have the neat edges on display - perfect). The cakes were matted onto the gold and the whole layer was raised with dimensionals.

On the inside of the card I used the Congratulations and On another year of happy togetherness sentiments from the free Congrats Sale-a-bration stamp set. I've used this stamp set on the outside of a card before (the Congratulations on passing your driving test card here) but I think they're especially good for stamping the insides of your cards and I've also used them on Wedding and New Baby cards.

Congrats is a set of 7 stamps and you can get them for free just by spending £45 or more on products from the Stampin' Up! catalogue. If you'd like to place an order to get your free stamp set then just email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com letting me know what you want and I can arrange delivery direct to your home.

One way to use them is to just stamp the inside of your card with Congratulations and then one of the following:

• on getting a little bit older and better than ever!
  
• welcome to the wedded bliss club!
  
• on the birth of your new baby!
  
• you've outdone yourself again!
  
• let the relaxation begin! (happy retirement!)
  
• on another year of happy togetherness!
  

A really helpful set for just finishing your cards off.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Quick craft tip - inking tip no. 1

Store your inkpads upside down so that ink will drain "down" to the "top" of the pad and be ready and juicy when you come to use it.

Full size Stampin' Up! ink pads should be stored the normal way up. This is because the clever folks at SU already know about this tip and have designed a flip-top pad that automatically stores the ink pad upside down within the container.

A sweet little gift bag using Spiced Cider paper

Hi folks. Certainly hope that you feel better than me at the moment. I've got a rotten cold that may even be flu (it feels like I've been kicked all over). So today I'm blogging about one I made earlier (in true Blue Peter fashion) as at least I can keep my laptop with me in bed.

Hope that this makes sense as I don't feel completely with it. This gift bag is from the box in a bag tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers. You can access it by clicking here. I'd wanted to make this ever since I saw it on their site as I think it's just so darned cute. By the way it's about 5 1/2" high - I think it tends to look bigger in the photos.

I used Really Rust cardstock for the box, trim and tabs. The paper is Spiced Cider. I decorated the trim and tabs with faux stitching using my White Gel Pen. Using my Boho Blossoms punch I punched the largest and smallest of the flowers in Chocolate and Really Rust respectively, decorated again with the gel pen and used dimensionals to add them to the outside of the gift bag. The bag is tied with some Chocolate Chip narrow ribbon. 

Keep well.

Sara xx

A thank you card using the free level 2 hostess stamp set

Here's a little thank you card made using the Cause for Celebration stamp set. This set is a great all rounder with 9 different stamps covering most major occasions and you can get it for free by hosting a workshop. I do the work, preparing and showing you the demonstrations and a make and take. You supply the friends and have fun. Email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com for available dates in February.

The layout for this card is to meet a Sketch Challenge over at ILWS. I used Really Rust as my base cardstock and added a couple of strips of Designer Series Paper from the Sweet Always collection. I stamped the Thanks stamp from Cause for Celebration in Chocolate Chip ink on Whisper White card. This was cut out, Pumpkin Pie ribbon tied around it and mounted with dimensionals (cut in half because the 't" is narrow) onto a square of Whisper White. Next, this was matted onto Pumpkin Pie. I stamped the little and the large flowers onto Whisper White using markers in the card colours, cut these out and layered them with dimensionals. Finally I used just the small flower and stamped with Versamark three times in the corner.

Sara xx

A floating butterfly card and a very Happy Birthday to my mum-in-law

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Marianne. I hope you have a great day.

I always like to do something a bit special for family and close friends and so I decided to add a bit of movement to this card by "floating" the butterfly over the top of the flower.

I used Lavender Lace as my base cardstock . Using the two little bugs from the Garden Whimsy stamp set I inked them using markers (Pixie Pink and Pink Passion) and stamped them three times onto Whisper White card. I trimmed this to a narrow border and stuck it to the back of the card. I then trimmed the same amount from the front of the card so that the border is fully visible when the card is closed. Again using markers direct onto my stamp I inked the flower from Garden Whimsy with Pixie Pink, a little Pink Passion (for the halo) and a blend of Sage Shadow and Old Olive for the leaves and stem. This image was punched with the corner rounder and matted onto Pink Passion card, also corner rounded.

For the little flower embellishment I used the Scallop Circle punch on Pink Passion card and just snipped in between each petal and shaped them a bit. I used the Birthday Wishes sentiment from the Circle of Friendship stamp set and stamped that using Pixie Pink ink on Whisper White cardstock. This was punched out with the 1" punch and matted onto Pixie Pink card punched out with the 1-1/4" punch. The combined circles were mounted onto the flower using a dimensional and the whole embellishment added to the corner of the flower image.

 The butterfly is also from the Garden Whimsy stamp set and was stamped onto Whisper White cardstock with Lavender Lace. The normally white spots were coloured in with Elegant Eggplant. After cutting out the butterfly it was stuck to a narrow strip of acetate and the rest of the acetate strip was fixed to the inside of the card with sticky strip, positioning it so that the butterfly hovers over the flower. 

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think of it.

Keep Stampin'!

Sara xx

Congratulations on passing your driving test - a card to celebrate

Whoa! What day is it? Where am I? This has been a really busy week. I'm so looking forward to the weekend when I may finally be able to draw breath. Monday evening my hubby and I went with my Mum and one of her friends to a fancy meal accompanied by wine tasting, organised by our theatre club. A marvellous evening even though we did end up taking pity on the taxi driver and walking the last 15 minutes home through the snow so he wouldn't get stuck! Tuesday night, after buying a new bookcase from Ikea and packaging up the Marker Club I deliveries (hope you liked them ladies), I worked on getting two cards completed - the one here and a birthday card that I'll show you tomorrow. Last night we went to see Cabaret at the Sheffield Lyceum, starring Wayne Sleep and Samantha Barks. It was an excellent production and very moving, I can definitely recommend it. Tonight I finally have a chance to catch up with my blog and touch base with a few friends. Tomorrow it's my mother-in-law's birthday so we'll be popping round with her card and presents. Oh and I also had to fit in the day job in between - still better to be busy than bored. Now, after all the gossipy stuff, I'll get to the bit you're really here for.

A friend of ours passed her driving test on Tuesday and so I made her a card to celebrate her success. It's a long time since I took my own driving test and I think it's got more difficult, so I'm really pleased for her. I used Ballet Blue cardstock as my base. Using Real Red cardstock, I cut out a letter L and mounted it on a Whisper White square. This looked a little too plain and so I used the corner rounder punch on all the corners and then added eyelets to the top two corners. I cut the learner plate in two just by cutting a freehand zig zag and then stuck it to the base card. I stamped Congratulations from the free Sale-A-Bration Congrats stamp set using Real Red on Whisper White card (it's not too late to get one of these sets - free with any £45 spend). Again I rounded the corners to mirror the learner plate.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx

Two blog awards - and I'd like to thank my husband, my Mum, my hairdresser ...

Woohoo! Not just one but two blog awards in the space of a week - thanks so much to my crafting friends and inspirations: Heather and Alex. And sorry that I'm only just catching up with them.

Last Friday Heather over at cardscrafts4u.blogspot.com nominated me for the Marie Antoinette award:

The rules of this award are as follows:

1) Post a link of the person who gave you the award.

2) Nominate 7 other people and give a link to their sites.

3) Let the people who you have nominated know.

4) Put a log of the award on your blog.

So this award now goes to:

1) Alex

2) Joanne

3) Margaret

4) Suz

5) Megan

6) Billie

7) Hayley

Then yesterday Alex over at Hau to Craft nominated me for the Butterfly award:

The idea of this award is to pass it along to ten others, as follows:

1. Post the award logo on your blog.

2. Add the link to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate ten other blogs and post their links as well.

4. Let those people know that they received the award.

So the people that I nominate for this award (a different group from the first and that's still not enough to cover everyone who provides me with ideas and inspiration) are:

1) Heather

2) Marilyn

3) Lynn

4) Savitri

5) Kate

6) Lorraine

7) Donna

8) Ange

9) Joanne

10) Lindsey

Thank you to everyone.

*Kiss*

*Wave*

*Kiss, kiss*

Quick craft tip - rubber stamping tip no. 2

If your rubber stamps are mounted on wooden blocks be careful to store them as flat as possible. If a wooden block is unbalanced and squashes the rubber below then it can distort the stamp and this will show as a gap or hole in the image when you next stamp it.

Stampin' Up! rubber stamps are delivered in strong, clear plastic boxes, making them easily stackable whilst protecting the rubber and also allowing easy identification of the stamps you need.

Man's valentine card with faux metal and wire

As I made a dainty, romantic valentine earlier in the week I thought I'd go for a hard metal look today, suitable to make a man's valentine. I also noticed that I've made quite a few valentine cards recently and so I've gone back and added extra labels to them all so that you can find them in one place with the label Valentine now.

I used Elegant Eggplant as my base cardstock. To make the faux metal heart, I used a square piece of mountboard (I use it for framing my photos) but any piece of strong card will work. The stronger the card the less it will curl when you heat it with the layers of embossing powder. I tapped Versamark ink all over the square then dipped it in silver embossing powder and heated. While the embossing powder is still molten I dipped again into the silver powder and worked through these steps until I had 4 layers in total. With the last silver layer still molten I pressed the heart stamp from the Polka Dot Punches stamp set into the embossed layers and waited a few seconds for it to cool slightly before removing the stamp. 

Taking the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment from the Seasonal Wishes set I stamped with Versamark onto Elegant Eggplant, added silver embossing powder (only the single layer this time) and embossed with the heat tool. Both the heart and the sentiment were matted onto Lavender Lace card. I used the Crop-A-Dile to punch a couple of holes top and bottom of the heart and threaded with silver elastic cord, securing the ends at the back of the card. The heart and the sentiment were both raised with dimensionals and I put the sentiment over the top of the lower cords.

Keep Stampin'.

Sara xx

Decoupaged cupcake birthday card in red, pink and orange for colour challenge

Oh no! I'm back to Ruby Red cardstock - but there is a good reason. It's one of the colours set in Kristina Werner's Color Challenge this week. I love these challenges as they push me out of my own comfort zone of colour combinations. Here is this week's colour set.

I decided to case one of my own layouts from a few weeks ago (when I made a baby card) and make another s-fold card. Starting with Ruby Red cardstock as my base this time, the card front is folded over in half and I added Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper to it. I chose the cupcake from the Cause for Celebration stamp set as my focus for the card. This is a Level 2 hostess set that you can get free for hosting a workshop (please email me if you'd like to book one). The cupcake was stamped onto Whisper White, Pretty in Pink and Pumpkin Pie card and all the individual stamp elements cut out of the coloured card. I decoupaged the flame and cupcake case from the Pumpkin Pie, adding a little Ruby Red ink to the flame. The frosting was decoupaged with the Pretty in Pink and a little Dazzling Diamonds added as a highlight.

I used the edge of a petal on the Scallop Circle punch to trim both the Whisper White cupcake and the Holiday Treasures corners. The cupcake was matted onto Pretty in Pink, then Ruby Red and then Pumpkin Pie card. A little Pumpkin Pie ribbon bow was added to the back of the card to finish it.

Hope you like it.

Sara xx

Dainty, romantic valentine in soft colours with heat embossing on vellum

Wayhay! I've done it - I've made a valentine and not a scrap of Ruby Red in sight. This is definitely one I think of as a real girlie valentine, very soft, dainty and romantic.

I used Blush Blossom as my base cardstock. Then using Versamark ink on paper vellum I stamped the heart from the free Polka Dot Punches stamp set, three times in a row. (Click here for details of how to get the free stamps.) Now to get those hearts lined up fairly straight and even, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig with the vellum placed over Grid Paper. I poured white embossing powder over the end hearts and gold embossing powder over the central heart and then heated with the Heat Tool. Embossing on vellum is a little quicker than on card so take care not to over do it. I slightly overheated the gold - the powder melted too far and so the dots aren't quite so sharp.

I then used my Scallop Edge punch top and bottom 

of the vellum and decorated those frills with some paper-piercing. Glue shows through vellum and so I masked where I had stuck it to the card by adding a couple of narrow strips of Blush Blossom textured card over the top.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Quick craft tip - heat embossing tip no. 1

Embossing powders are designed to stick easily to your inks but this also results in them sticking just as easily, to any natural oils that transfer from your hands to the card. If you're not careful, then you could end up with unintentional, embossed fingerprints and smudges in the middle of your work of art. To prevent this, wipe your card with an anti-static bag or dry tumble dryer sheet and handle the card by the edges until the powder has been heat set.

A sunny get well card made without any stamps

My Mum's got this awful flu bug that's going around and so I thought I'd try to cheer her up a little by making her a get well card. I also decided to challenge myself to make a card without any stamps - instead I've used some of my stash of embellishment goodies.

I started with Apricot Appeal cardstock cut and folded to a 5" square card. Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon are weaved along two sides to frame the focus. I took the largest flower from the Pretties Kit and dusted the edge of the petals with Apricot Appeal chalk to just soften the edges. The mat for the flower uses squares of Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie. Small Pumpkin rhinestone brads, from the Circle Fire set, anchor the corners. I created the centre of the flower using the largest of the Boho Blossoms (again in Apricot Appeal), together with the largest Pumpkin rhinestone brad. This is all raised on dimensionals.

I'm sure I'll be back with the stamps soon :-)

Sara xx

A patchwork birthday card - making use of paper scraps

Today's card is one that I made for Kristina Werner's Colour Challenge and also with an upcoming friend's birthday in mind.

These are the colours that Kristina set this week. Now we don't have Baja Breeze in the UK Stampin' Up! catalogue (at least not yet) and so I substituted Bordering Blue.

I've noticed so many machine stitched cards in the SU Idea Book and Catalogue and it finally inspired me to get my own sewing machine out. This is the first time it's been out since we moved into this house which is 8 or 9 years ago now (oops). And it was just like riding a bike ... well almost. I was on automatic pilot for threading the machine up and operating it but I think I may need to fine tune the tension on the zig-zag stitch :-).

I decided that making a patchwork quilt of Designer Series paper squares would be a good way to use up some of my scraps. You do know that I hoard everything don't you - even left over scraps. If they're big enough to punch Boho Blossoms out of then they're worth hanging onto *smiles*.

The base card is Bordering Blue textured cardstock cut and folded to 5" square. I used papers from Sweet Always and Old Olive Patterns and cut these to 4cm squares (a smudge over 1.5") and snail taped these to white cardstock to hold them in place while I stitched. The central square was plain Chocolate Chip cardstock to give focus to the sentiment. Using the Birthday Wishes stamp from the Circle of Friendship stamp set I stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on Bordering Blue cardstock (plain rather than textured this time), punched with the 1" circle punch and mounted using silver Hodgepodge. For those who are keen on friendship quilts, the Thinking of You - Friendship sentiment from the same stamp set would have worked really well with this (but I knew I needed a birthday card).

Having had a go at this I would love to do some more stitched cards but ...

... as I turned off the sewing machine lamp, the button went all the way in and stuck there. I'm now waiting for hubby to get home to see whether he can salvage my machine for me. Watch this space.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx

Cleaning rubber stamps - how (and why) to use the Stampin' Scrub and Mist

Rubber stamps will last you years if you take a little care with them. Now I know that one of those "little care" things is keeping them clean but in the past I still used to leave them for months before having a big cleaning session in one go (after all one of the reasons I craft is to be able to ignore the cleaning, lol). I used to use lots of warm washing up water, a toothbrush and plenty of paper towels. Worked after a fashion but a bit risky. By the time I cleaned them the ink had been on ages and was more difficult to get off and if you get the stamps too wet you can loosen the glue or warp the wood.

Anyway when I joined Stampin' Up! two of the items in the starter kit were the Stampin' Scrub and Mist. These are little life savers and make me feel so virtuous (doesn't happen often :-) ).

When you open the Stampin' Scrub it has two black fibre scrubbing mats. One has a little rain droplet icon at the outside edge - this is the mat you use to spritz and scrub. 

The other has a little umbrella icon - this is the mat you use to dry the stamp. 

You just spritz the mat lightly with the Stampin' Scrub (this formula conditions as well as cleans your rubber stamps) and rub your stamp back and forth over it a few times. Then rub your stamp on the drying side and you're done. The Scrub is big enough to fit the largest Stampin' Up! stamps on it.

As well as helping prolong the life of your stamps and giving you that virtuous feeling, this is a quick and easy way to clean your stamps when you're swapping from one colour to another and don't want to contaminate your inkpads. The fibre mats are removable so that you can rinse them under tap water, air dry them and return them to the Scrub.

Prices (current at date of blog post):

Stampin' Scrub - £11.75

Stampin' Mist (56.6g)  - £2.75

Stampin' Mist refill (226.8g) - £6.25

If you'd like to order any of these then please email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com.

Quick and happy cleanin' (now to tackle the housework! Ha ha)

Sara xx

Plain and simple sympathy card

This is one type of card that I don't enjoy making - I don't suppose that any of us do. If we need to send a sympathy card then it's a sad occasion. On the other hand I do want to show bereaved friends and family that we care and that we are thinking about them. One of my husband's friends just lost his father at the beginning of the week and I was quite touched when my husband asked me to make a sympathy card to give.

This did present a small problem as I don't actually have any sympathy stamps at the moment. Stampin' Up! have a several appropriate stamp sets including Always in My Thoughts and Close as a Memory, but they're still a little way down my stamp shopping list. So I had to improvise. I used the single flower from the Garden Whimsy set and coloured the stamp directly with my markers and then stamped onto Whisper White card. I inked just the Thinking of You text from Circle of Friendship (again using markers - the only way to ink something so small and detailed) and stamped that below, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to position it correctly. I used Pale Plum for the base cardstock and matted the image onto Sage Shadow.

I just hope that I don't have need to make another one for quite a while and I hope that you don't too.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx

Simple Valentine pyramid card - using free stamp set

Today I've done another simple valentine card using the Polka Dot Punches stamp set. In case you've missed it previously, this is one of four limited edition stamp sets that you can get for free, simply by spending £45 or more on any goodies from the Stampin' Up! catalogue. If you order from me within the next week or so then you will get your stamps in plenty of time to create your Valentine's card. Details of the offer are here, you can browse the catalogue to create your wish list by clicking here, then email your order to me at sarastamper123@gmail.com.

For today's card I've used Ruby Red cardstock (yet again - but I promise to use something different for the next valentine's card :-) ) and cut and scored the card used a pyramid card template. The little border on the bottom was created using the Scallop Edge punch on Whisper White card and the sentiment is from the Seasonal Wishes stamp set. By the way, there's a misprint for this set in the UK catalogue and instead of "Happy Thanksgiving" we get "Easter Wishes" - much better. 

A narrow strip of Ruby Red card also decorates the border which runs round all three sides of the card. The hearts are stamped in Ruby Red ink, cut out and mounted with dimensionals. There's plenty of space on the back/inside of the card for a personal message to your valentine.

Keep Stampin'

Sara xx

Quick Craft Tip - using punches tip no. 1 & 2

To keep your punches sharp and producing smooth punched out images, punch through kitchen foil a few times (take care not to cut yourself on the foil).

Thanks to Amanda and Hayley for this one:

If your punch jams then put it in the freezer for a while, the metal contracts and frees up the punch.

Valentine gift box to match simple valentine card

Today I've made a little gift box to match the simple valentine's card that I made earlier. Details of that card can be found by clicking here.

Ruby Red cardstock was used to create the box. I stamped directly onto the box front in Ruby Red ink with the From the Heart sentiment, one of the Seasonal Wishes stamp set. Using the heart from the Polka Dot Punches set I stamped twice onto Whisper White (also with Ruby Red ink), cut out the two hearts and layered them onto the box front with dimensionals. I decorated the top of the box with some Holiday Treasures designer series paper to echo the card. The fastening is Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon.

I love creating matching sets. Hope you like it too.

Sara xx

Card for a new baby girl using fun and fast notes stamp set

Hi all.

I didn't get time for any crafting yesterday. We had friends coming round for a meal and so I had to transform my craft room back into a dining room. Here's the "after" picture. I didn't think to take a "before" picture but I'm sure that it will be back in the usual state of crafting disarray (that's a semi-organised mess :-) ) before too long. I'm making the most of the dining room by having the in-laws round for dinner tomorrow. They thought they'd done something wrong it's been so long since had an invite, lol. 

For now I've set up a temporary craft station on the coffee table in the living room, handy for watching the tv at the same time but I can only have limited supplies out. Still, I managed to get this one crafted this afternoon.

Here I've made a card to welcome a new baby girl. I like to have various occasion cards made ready so that I can pick out what I need when I need it.

For this I used Regal Rose cardstock for the base. It's an A5 card with the front folded back on itself. I used the Happy New Baby stamp from the Fun and Fast Notes stamp set, stamped onto Whisper White card and coloured and shaded with markers. This was matted onto Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink card. The front card fold was covered with a strip of paper from the Sweet Always designer series set of papers.

I attached a charm to the top right corner using Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon. To provide a bit of balance, layout wise, I stamped the bottom left in Versamark with Sweet Little One from the Seasonal Wishes stamp set. I used two very narrow strips of Pretty in Pink card to frame the sentiment.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx

Spread the cost of a full set of Stampin' Write markers and get a free stamp set

!!Please note that this offer has now expired. Email me to find out the latest offers available.!!

Want the full set (all 48) of Stampin' Write markers in a storage case but can't afford £99.95 all at once? Me too :-(

So I figured I'd offer a January Markers Club that also lets us take advantage of the marvellous Sale-a-bration and get a free stamp set at the same time - woohoo!

The Stampin' Write markers co-ordinate completely with all the Stampin' Up! range of inks and cardstock so you'll always have just the right colour to match your project.

They're double tipped; one end has a 0.5 mm fine tip and the other has a flexible brush tip, so they're ideal for journaling and colouring. The markers are acid free, xylene free and non-toxic, so safe for scrapbooking. The storage case will keep all your markers in one place and the carry handle makes it easy to take them with you to your crops and classes. It also keeps the markers horizontal so that both ends remain equally inked and ready to go. Want them? Need them?

Then here's how the club will work. Each month for the next 4 months (Jan-Apr) you will pay:

£25 plus £2 (a reduced p & p cost)

You will get:

One colour family set of markers (soft subtles set pictured above) - a different set of twelve colours each month until you have them all

... plus ...

 

January - a copy of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue (value £4.95)

February - a Sale-a-bration stamp set (you choose which one when you sign up)

March  - a set of techniques sheets for getting the most from your markers

April - the storage box for your marker set

To join my Marker Club email sarastamper123@googlemail.com

You won't have to pay anything other than the £25 each month for four months but if you've still got Santa's stash to spend and want to order more, then for every additional £45 you spend on goods from the catalogue in either January or February you'll qualify for another Sale-a-bration set (or hostess benefits if you spend over £150 anytime). 

You could of course just buy a different set of markers each month yourself (and I'm happy to help if you need to finish off your collection) but then you wouldn't get the storage case or the other benefits I'm offering. This is the best time to get these as I'll not be able to run the same offer after January. I need 3 more people to start this Marker Club but if we have enough interest before the end of January then I'll run additional clubs.

Not so small print - this offer is exclusive to Marker Club orders placed with me in January 2009 and is only available to UK residents.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

A Very Happy New Year

I wish you all a very healthy, wealthy and happy 2009.

In case you haven't come across it, Kristina Werner has a great blog in which she sets a weekly colour challenge. You can get to it here. I like it because it uses Stampin' Up! colours (but if you don't have them then you can just go with your nearest match). Her colours this week are these:

I don't often get time to play along fully because her posting window is quite short but I'm going to make more of an effort this year.

Here's my take on this colour challenge.

I  went with the One of a Kind stamp set to make this card. With Old Olive cardstock as my base I covered it with a couple of different designer series papers also in Old Olive. Pretty in Pink ink was used to stamp the two smallest flowers of the trio and I punched these with the Boho Blossoms punch (so much easier than cutting every individual flower). They are arranged along the join of the two papers (can be useful hiding any problems you have with the join) with the alternate flowers raised on dimensionals. I stamped the large flower with Rose Red onto Whisper White card and cut and layered that onto Pretty in Pink and then Rose Red cardstock. The central flower was secured with a Fire Circle Rhinestone brad and is also raised on dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped with Old Olive and framed with Hodge Podge (but I swapped in a couple of Old Olive brads instead of the silver ones supplied).

Wow - bling brad and Hodge Podge. I'm on a roll. Told you I'd start using my stash.

Now to link this post to the challenge ...

Keep Stampin!

Sara xx